Psalm 62:8 Trust in [God] at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks at the Benedict house with the throttle wide-open for ministry and life in general.

So last week my wife gently approached me to mention that we weren’t talking enough. Always a bit defensive with these types of conversations, I think I said something like, “Well, that’s news to me, aren’t we talking right now?” I then went on to point out each time in the last 48 hours we had emailed, Facebooked, left each other phone messages, talked on the phone or discussed face-to-face who was doing what in our never ending quest to manage a household of six people. It was quite an impressive list of communication.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said, “we’re not t-a-l-k-i-n-g.” She strung the word out for emphasis.

I may have played dumb, but I knew exactly what she was talking about. It wasn’t that we needed more time to discuss our busy calendar or an update on what days the kids were buying lunch this week or whether we had overspent our entertainment budget. It was the need for true heart connection, the intentional deepening of our relationship, the opportunity to share, confide, discuss; even vent our thoughts, emotions and feelings. It just wasn’t happening. Or at least, not enough.

I wasn’t very receptive to that conversation, but over this past week, I have made some intentional steps to reconnect with Pam and with good result. Not that we were miserable before, but a joy and lightness has returned to our relationship along with renewed warmth and affection. She was right, we need to talk.

The same thing is true with our relationship with God. We need to talk, and not just about the surfacey stuff. The Psalmist pleads with us, “O people, pour out our heart before Him for God is our refuge. Pour out: that’s a great word picture. Our heart, like a pitcher of water, is full. Full of thoughts, emotions, ambitions, disappointment, hurts, joys, pain. God, our Healer, invites us to pour it all out in his presence and discover that in that place we can find refuge, shelter and acceptance.

Left to myself, I’ll pray for my kids, the missionaries, our church, finding a parking spot at the mall, world peace, finding my missing drivers license… and all of these have their place. But I have a far greater need- the need to pour out my heart before the Lord, to unpack and process all of the scrapes and scratches, the bumps and bruises that life dishes out. To connect with the one who made me, knows me and deeply cares for me.

Can you hear his gentle call? We need to talk!